Died this day

1838 — Arkansas passes a sodomy statute, after relying on a common-law statute for two decades. The penalty is set at 5-21 years.

1931 — The Illinois Supreme Court upholds a sodomy conviction after uncorroborated testimony was admitted in the trial and the state entered evidence of a theft conviction of 13 years earlier.

1934 — A California appellate court upholds a sodomy conviction in which there was no proof of penetration, something state law requires.

1941 — Congress enacts a vagrancy law for the District of Columbia, labeling as vagrant "anyone convicted of a felony loitering in a public place" and anyone guilty of "acts of perversion for hire."

1971 — The Florida Supreme Court strikes down the state’s "crime against nature" law as unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. It says that, with a constantly changing world, what is a crime against nature today is different from what it was a hundred years ago.